Blogging for Business: The 6 Biggest Blogging Myths

I’ve been getting some questions about blogging for business from my subscribers . It’s a long time since I posted one of Alison Rothwell’s wonderful articles and as this one answers the questions so eloquently I thought it was time to post another.

The Six Biggest Blogging Myths

Myths arise from lack of information and in the case of blogging, often from inexperience. Some of the common myths related to blogging in general and business blogging in particular are:

Myth #1: Blogging is Not Appropriate for Business

Says who? It’s easy to see the reasons and benefits of having a business blog, and these are covered in detail in other articles in the SEO Training Club. A blog enhances a business. Having a website is no longer enough. You can increase sales, establish excellent PR, reach your target market and become known for your knowledge and expertise, all by having a blog.

Myth #2: Your Business Income Will Increase Immediately After Starting a Blog

Let’s get real. A newly established business doesn’t show a profit for years! Starting a blog with the expectation it will earn money is a mistake. Like any business, a blog takes time to establish itself. Some may taste success faster than others, but it?s a similar story in running a business. Give your blog time, tend to it properly and don’t give up. Your business blog may not ever earn you money directly, but the indirect increase in your income through it will definitely be there.

Not convinced? Consider this: all those contacts you made through blogging that led to more business. Sure it’s not your blog making money directly, but it is your business increasing through contacts you made via your company’s blog.

Myth #3: Blogging Doesn’t Require Much Time

I’ll be honest, I thought this too. Just one week into blogging and I realized I was mistaken. Blogging doesn’t require much time only if your blog is so established that you’ve worked out all the kinks and it now runs like a well oiled machine.

Since not many of us have reached that stage, blogging requires a lot of time and dedication. The minute a post is published we start worrying about the next one. We’re thinking two weeks ahead and panicking how we don’t have ideas for blog posts after that.

On a minimum, a blog needs an hour or so daily.

Myth #4: Maintaining a Blog is Easy

Maintaining a blog is as tough as keep a business afloat. There is nothing easy about keeping a blog going successfully. From having content issues to trafficwoes, nothing comes easy in blogging. To get results you have to work hard at your blog and exercise patience.

Myth #5: A Blog has to be Updated Everyday

While it is true that a blog has better chances of becoming popular if it is updated daily, there is not hard and fast rule. What works for some blogs may not necessarily work for others. To get results you have to work hard at your blog and be patient. It also depends on your niche and topic of your blog. If most of your blogging requires feature length blog posts then blogging daily is not realistic. The posts would need time to sink in and register with your readers as well as get the proper attention and comments.

It also depends on your niche and topic of your blog. To find out what frequency of posts works best for your blog, you will have to experiment with different schedules.

Myth #6: You Must be an Excellent Writer

That’s a bit like saying you must be great at holding meetings to have a successful business. You don’t have to be an excellent writer to get your point across in a blog post. Spellings and typos (occasional) are all overlooked if the basic idea is intriguing. To write a blog, all you have to be able to do is string two grammatically correct sentences together and know your mind well enough to convey your message.

Comments

This article is completely spot on! Having the blog active on our site has given us a way to interact with our customers on a whole new level. Since our biggest market is the nearby college, having a bunch of drink recipes and photos on the blog weekly has shown to bring people back to the site many times over. This is a consistently over-looked opportunity by most businesses.

I have to agree heartily with numbers 5 and 6. I know from personal experience that a blog is a terribly powerful thing, even in the hands of amateurs. I do most of the blogging for my site, and being able to explain things about your product or service in a non-sales tone really does wonders to lower the barrier to calling or emailing.

What Alison says resonates strongly with my own experience of blogging. It does take a lot of effort, especially in the beginning, but if you’re persistant and accept that you may make a few mistakes along the way hopefully you’ll find blogging an activity that can be both enjoyable and returns a little profit.

Yes, you are right Bethany, I don’t think a lot of people know what it takes to keep at it in the beginning. It certainly takes perseverence. There is plenty of good information and guidelines about blogging around both free and paid courses if you want to learn from the masters.

And therin lays the problem for many would be Internet Marketer’s Becca. There are too many oportunities being thrown at them from all directions so some never take the first step or get distracted along the way so don’t complete any project.

When you look at some of the very successful blogs the bloggers usually write very long blog posts. It takes time and a lot of research to write quality posts like that. You can’t outsource stuff like that without it costing a lot. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Powerful arguments! Would like to agree that blogging takes a lot of effort and time and is never easy. Just thinking about what do I post next makes me go nuts already. Every beginner should read this.

I think that some gifted people never run out of ideas and can just write naturally. For others it takes practice.
Ideas come from all sorts of places such as magazines, online & offline newspapers, TV, news sites, google alerts.
Checking out other blogs in your niche can often prompt ideas.

Exactly. I’d rather write one spot on high quality blog a week than 6 or 7 watered down ones lacking quality. I’ve seen so many top marketers doing this. Becoming lazy once they’ve started to make a bit of money and weak blogs cause them to lose their credibility. Outsourcing can be so dodgy as well because readers can sometimes detect the change in writing style.

Hi Sandy,I am agreed with your point of view.The two myths I came across with were updating blog on daily basis and you should be an excellent writer.I think most bloggers go through these myths at early stages of their blogging.Well! good that you bring light on these myths,

My tip for trying to avoid the “bright shiny things” syndrome that Becca is finding, is to NOT check my email first thing in the morning.

First of all I do something productive (probably using the last “offer” I didn’t resist) and often get so involved in that that it’s very late when I get round to emails, but at least I am using the offers/training I bought.

As most of my emails are sales emails anyway it’s a good thing I’m too tired to read them 🙂

Also, have an unsubscribe day every so often. Only stay on the email list of people who send you really useful things,

Hi Sandy,
You have made some great points here.
Blogging is not easy, you need to invest the time to create and reach out to other bloggers in order to spread the word otherwise all your writing efforts could be in vain!
Thanks
James

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Thanks for visiting my blog. I am Sandy Halliday from England. My background is in health and I became involved in marketing health products on the internet in 2005.
While learning to promote my site I became interested in the internet marketing and making money online niche. I look forward to sharing what I have learned so far. Visit often for tips on making money on the internet.

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